Copolymerization products of compounds containing two or more alkenyl groups with compounds containing two or more maleimide groups are known for example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,288,583; in U.S. Pat. No. 4,100,140; in U.S. Pat. No. 4,923,928 as well as from H. D. Stenzenberger, P. Konig, M. Herzog, W. Romer, M. S. Canning and S. Pierce, 18th International SAMPE Technical Conference, 18, pages 500-509 (1986); H. Nakamura, M. Yamagiwa, K. Asagi, K. Kamio and S. Kanagawa, 18th International SAMPE Technical Conference, 18, pages 694-704 (1986); H. D. Stenzenberger, P. Konig, M. Herzog, W. Romer, S. Pierce, K. Fear and M. S. Canning, 19th International SAMPE Technical Conference, 19, pages 372-385 (1987); H. D. Stenzenberger, P. Konig, W. Romer, M. Herzog, S. Pierce and M. Canning, 32nd International SAMPE Symposium, 32, pages 44-58 (1987) and J. King, M. Chaudhari and S. Zahir, 29th National SAMPE Symposium, 29, pages 392-408 (1984). Representative of said copolymerization products are those prepared by copolymerization of o,o'-diallylbisphenol A or o,o'-dipropenylbisphenol A with N,N'-(methylene-di-phenylene)bismaleimide. Preparation of said copolymerization products always requires premixing or contacting together two separate components; the polyalkenyl compound and the polymaleimide compound.
The novel compositions of the present invention simultaneously contain both an alkenyl group and a maleimide group as well as one more rodlike mesogenic moieties. Thus, said compositions avoid the premixing or contacting together of separate polyalkenyl and polymaleimide components to provide products containing alkenyl group and maleimide group copolymerization structures. The presence of one or more rodlike mesogenic moieties provides structure capable of being oriented during processing and/or curing of the alkenyl functional maleimides.